INDIA'S GREATEST SON	41
The way for the monk and nun is at once more direct
and much more difficult—it is a way of mild asceticism,
and of difficult practices of mystical or transcendental
contemplation.
But as the lay-devotees grew in number and the monks
in influence the monastery became a centre of art and
learning, and there grew up great abbeys such as that of
Ajanta in west India and Anuradhapura in Ceylon, and
great university foundations such as Nalanda in east India
and Taxila in the north-west. These flourished from
about the first century of our era to the seventh, and
Buddhism during this time spread its influence to China,
Korea, Japan, and the Islands of the Pacific. This is the
greatest epoch of Buddhism—a veritable golden age of
its secular as well as its religious influence.
The Gupta renaissance in India, no less than that of
T'ajrg in China and the awakening of Japan under
Shotoku's regency, is the fruit of the seed sown by Sakya-
muni in the sixth century b.c. Its carriers were in all cases
monks. Before this great expansion there were two other
great eras—that of Asoka (third century b.c.) when
Ceylon was civilized by a Buddhist mission and that of
Kanishka (first century a,d.) when the barbarians who
conquered north-west India became Buddhist, and
Buddhism began its long pilgrimage through the hinter-
land of the Himalayas.
The secular forces which helped it were the gradual uni-
fication of India as the kingdom of Magadha advanced to
leadership; and a growing interest in the surrounding lands.
Buddhism itself helped both these processes, and be-
came the vehicle for Indian culture to Indonesia, China,
Korea, and Japan. In the south—in Ceylon, Burma, and
Siam—it became more stoical and less sure of the technique
of meditation, yet inspired kings and scholars to great
efforts. In the north it became more emotional and gradu-
ally more theistic as the founder became a god, the monk
a priest, and the memorial mound a temple. This Maha-
yana or Great Way offers an easy salvation to all—that of